Tofu Pad Thai

I posted this recipe a zillion years ago when I started my blog. I think I still lived in Boston, and I’m pretty sure Solomon was the only person who ever read my blog. We make it about once a month, and I decided to make it this week since it is Passover friendly. Many people avoid rice products during Passover, but since I married Solomon, and decided to adopt his Sephardic traditions (so I can eat rice and legumes over Passover), rice is allowed, and makes for a great meal.

Just like how my mom judges an Italian restaurant by it’s eggplant parmesan, Solomon and I judge a Thai restaurant by their pad thai. Because the closest Thai restaurant is…wait for it…45 minutes away, this has become a staple in our house more out of necessity. We were used to being in walking distance to a handful of Thai restaurants, so it has gotten a lot harder to satisfy our cravings living here, especially because we both LOVE Thai food. I found this recipe over at We Are Not Martha, and made a few changes to it so that it was both kosher, and vegetarian friendly (oyster sauce? Not on my shift).

First, combine the soy sauce, lime juice, sugar, sriracha and stock to make a sauce. Taste it as you go, you may want to make it spicier (we do!)

I let the flavors come together and got to work on my rice noodles. Usually I use bigger noodles, that you would find on any pad thai dish, but after digging through my cabinets, this was all I came up with. They were OK…spaghetti noodles in pad thai was a little strange, plus their texture was different, but you can’t win them all.

While the pasta was cooking away, I heated both oils and the garlic in my wok over medium heat. If you’ve never tried chili oil, you should get your hands on some. It adds such a nice kick to everything from stir fries to sauces.

I added my tofu to the wok and let it cook for a few minutes. I find if I mostly leave it alone, it tends to brown a lot nicer. Sure, it looks like there’s a lot of oil in the wok, but it’s only about 1/4 cup total for 4+ servings, so I feel pretty OK with it.

Once the tofu was browned, I moved it off to the side and added my eggs.

Once they began to harden a bit, I kind of scrambled it all together.

After almost all of the egg is cooked, add in your pasta, and give the mix a few tosses. Then pour your sauce on top, stir it all up, and let it cook for a few more minutes.

Towards the end of your cooking, add in sliced scallions and bean sprouts (which I didn’t have since I did my grocery shopping a few days ago and they would have been all nasty and gross by last night), and tamarind paste (which I just forgot to add because I’m flaky like that).

Garnish with some peanuts, and maybe more sriracha and enjoy!

Honestly, it’s not exactly like a Thai restaurant, but it’s pretty darn close. It sure beats a 45 minute drive to Erie!

What’s your favorite thing to get at a Thai restaurant? Do you judge certain ethnic restaurants by the same dish?